I'm pretty sure that Trump will be the first president in a while that doesn't get re-elected. Then again, I've been wrong plenty of times before.

Fortunately for me, I actually agree with a good number of his policies (the actual policies, not the non-sense which is proclaimed by the liberal press). I could do without his hubris, though. I wish he would talk / tweet less and just generally act a lot more presidential.

His policies will result in making americans poor, because he doesn't understand the ramifications of his actions. Case in point - tariffs on steel and aluminium results in higher prices in just about everything.

^ or it raises scrap prices and more is recycled... or people consume less and be more efficient, reducing carbon emissions. After all, you can't make steel without coal, so using less is a good thing.

LTLFTcomposite wrote:^ or it raises scrap prices and more is recycled... or people consume less and be more efficient, reducing carbon emissions. After all, you can't make steel without coal, so using less is a good thing.

We recycle quite a bit already (~50% - thanks to rust, you can't really recycle much more than that), and rising scrap prices is directly related to the price of virgin steel, which just reinforces the fact that Trump's policies are directly impacting the american economy. Lower consumer consumption is actually bad for the economy, as that decreases business revenue, which begets layoffs and increased unemployment, which just feeds on itself until we're in another recession. The lower economy also means lower tax revenue, which opens up a whole other can of worms.

GetOffYourGas wrote:Gotta love how "we're drowning in plastic" has turned into a discussion of steel.

Don't dispair, the conversation should pivot back to blaming Trump for everything shortly.

One interesting thing I saw in the NG article was a graph that showed a sharp pullback in plastic production in 2008 with the economic woes. The takeaway there is that all the predatory lending, repackaging subprime mortgages into improperly rated securities and what have you was actually good for the environment. A big thank you to AIG from the world's marine life!

GetOffYourGas wrote:Gotta love how "we're drowning in plastic" has turned into a discussion of steel.

Don't dispair, the conversation should pivot back to blaming Trump for everything shortly.

One interesting thing I saw in the NG article was a graph that showed a sharp pullback in plastic production in 2008 with the economic woes. The takeaway there is that all the predatory lending, repackaging subprime mortgages into improperly rated securities and what have you was actually good for the environment. A big thank you to AIG from the world's marine life!

I'm actually surprised that the discussion has been so focused on Trump, and no one has yet mentioned Pruitt (oh shoot, I just broke the seal) given that this is about AGW, plastic, and posted in the "Environmental Issues" section.